Manufacturer investigating cause of Aurora school bus fire

Manufacturers of the Aurora Public Schools Bus 1238 that caught on fire while carrying 14 students confirmed on Friday they’re investigating the cause.

School district officials defended their bus safety oversight.

The bus had multiple problems over the last six years, including instances where drivers reported  “check engine lights on,” according to maintenance records reviewed by the Denver Post. On Aug. 7, a driver’s report that check engine lights were on prompted mechanical inspections and a decision “to leave the lights on for now,” the records show.

Over the past six years, school district mechanics regularly conducted inspections and addressed problems reported by drivers. Repairs made under a warranty included replacement of oxygen sensors and the exhaust manifold and fixing oil leaks, records show. The bus was new in 2018, officials said, and records this year show more than 44,000 miles on its odometer.

A Colorado Department of Education inspector in 2018 checked a box indicating the bus was “satisfactory,” records show. It was unclear from the more than 40 pages of maintenance records whether Bus 1238 had more mechanical trouble than other buses in Aurora’s fleet.

The fire that broke out in the engine compartment on Aug. 14 around 4 p.m. left the engine and much of the bus charred. The bus driver cleared the children from the bus and nobody was hurt. When rescue workers arrived at the scene, near the intersection of East 11th Avenue and North Picadilly Road, they found the bus “heavily engulfed in flames.”

Aurora Fire Rescue officials deemed the fire “accidental,” agency spokeswoman Dawn Small said, but didn’t pinpoint a cause.

So what caused the bus to catch on fire?

“The bus manufacturer, IC Bus, is conducting the investigation,” Aurora Public Schools spokesman Corey Christiansen said in an emailed response to questions.

“Our buses receive heavy use each day and go through a rigorous and continuous inspection process. The length of the maintenance history demonstrates our commitment to routinely checking and immediately fixing any issues that arise,” Christiansen said.

As the bus was carrying students, the bus driver noticed “a small fire in the engine compartment,” he said. The driver stopped the bus and evacuated the children.

The records show that 75% of the maintenance work done since 2018 was not directly related to the engine, according to a school district review of the records. About 25% of the maintenance was filling up the bus containers of hand sanitizer, and when “check engine” lights flashed most of the problems were found by inspectors to be related to emissions or spark plugs – problems that were fixed, Christiansen said. Oil leaks also were promptly addressed by district mechanics or the bus dealership, he said.

IC Bus spokeswoman Bre Whalen McCloud said in an email Friday morning that police or other investigators would investigate to determine the cause of the fire. “The safety of the thousands of children that are transported every day on an IC Bus is always our highest priority. At this time, we are allowing the local law enforcement and investigators to go through their process and we are prepared to provide any requested assistance.”